Steven Spielberg has been playing God ever since 1977’s “Close Encounters,” envisioning scenarios in which individuals, groups, communities, civilizations, even whole species are figuratively or literally raised from the dead. The new Fox drama “Terra Nova”– which is created by Kelly Marcel and Craig Silverstein but executive produced by Spielberg, and which fits comfortably within the Spielberg continuum — could be the maestro’s most audacious resurrection yet. I’m not a fan of of tonight’s two-hour pilot — like most premieres, it’s mostly exposition wrapped in spectacle, and it has other problems that I’ll address in a second. But I can say that if you’re a science fiction buff of any kind, you’ll want to check it out just for the premise. The network’s marketing campaign is trying to position “Terra Nova” as another “Lost,” and the hype fits in one respect. Just as “Lost” fans were happy to spend hours debating the scientific, philosophical and theological aspects of the show even though individual episodes disappointed them, I can envision “Terra Nova” sparking a similarly devoted following — one that gathers online every Monday night to bitch about new episodes after they’ve aired, then spends the next six days geeking out over implications that the show failed to explore.

Fifteen years ago, I stood alone outside a building on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, staring at a second-floor window as my heart beat hard in my chest. It was my first AA meeting, and I knew that once I walked through those doors, things would never be the same. Once I said I was an alcoholic, I could never un-say it. I might drink again or I might not (though at the time, I found that hard to imagine), but whatever I did going forward, the context would have changed.

Recently, Steven Heller, one of our longest-running and most beloved contributors — certainly our most prolific — traveled to the White House to accept the Design Mind Award from the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. The award “recognizes a visionary who has effected a paradigm shift in design thinking or practice through writing, research, and scholarship.” It couldn’t be more deserved: Steve has an outsize responsibility for the inroads graphic design has made in the popular imagination, from his 33 years as art director at the New York Times to his tireless work chronicling design history. To mark his achievement, I asked Steve about his work ethic, what he learned from art directing a porn magazine, and his advice for the Obama administration.

Two years ago, Time magazine named Martin Lindstrom one of the 100 most influential people in the world, explaining that he was among “the first brand experts to understand the biology of consumer desire.” A marketing guru who has worked with some of the most powerful corporations in the world — from Disney and McDonald’s to Procter & Gamble and American Express — Lindstrom is clearly very good at what he does.

Wayne Koestenbaum, the author of the new book “Humiliation,” is answering questions from Salon readers over the next several days about their most shameful and cringe-worthy moments. Have a question of your own? Send it to askwayne@salon.com.

The timing was coincidental, but there’s a strong relationship between a speech that Barack Obama delivered in California last night and a new profile of Fox News chief Roger Ailes that went online around the same time.

CAIRO, Egypt — Just days after the departure of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak on Feb. 11, the nation’s new, self-appointed military leaders pledged, within six months, a swift transition to civilian rule.